


Let the Words Fall Out

by katybear1128



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Am I making this fan fic on a quarantine whim?, Do I regret anything?, English-fluent OC, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Language Barrier, Main Storyline, No archive warning but that may change, Sakamoto Ryuji needs more love, Slow Burn, possibly, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23645143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katybear1128/pseuds/katybear1128
Summary: Max Jones has just moved to Tokyo from the United States, and she speaks little Japanese even though she understands (for the most part) what everyone is saying. She is confused by most things in her new environment, so what happens when you add in all of the confusion of the Metaverse and a needlessly corrupt society?“What the actual fuck?” Max grumbled to herself.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira/Niijima Makoto, Sakamoto Ryuji/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! I am so close to finishing the Persona 5 game, so I'm beginning a fan-fiction. Natural progression. 
> 
> Quick note: The OC is still learning Japanese, so there will be moments when she speaks in English, and these moments will specifically say that she's speaking in English. Hope you enjoy!

“Why did her parents even put her in school if she can’t speak Japanese?”

“I heard that her parents went through a legal battle to get the inheritance. I bet they played dirty and don’t actually have any right to that money.”

“Isn’t her brother some sort of prodigy or something?”

“I heard that her brother’s prize money is going to get her into a university! It’s so shameful that she can’t do anything herself…”

The “slow American” kept her expression neutral, as she always did, as she walked through the halls of Shujin Academy. Despite her annoyance at the falsity of most of their claims, it was honestly kind of refreshing that people said what they really thought when they thought that she couldn’t understand them.

Max, in reality, could understand them just fine. It was just speaking the precise language of Japanese that she struggled with. However, explaining that concept was too much of a chore for too many reasons, and she was going back to the United States in about three years anyways. Only 1,064 days to go. She could go back to Arizona, where it was warm, where they didn’t have school on Saturdays, where it wasn’t common for public schools to require their students to wear stupid uniforms, where she actually was taken seriously.

“Jones-kun!”

Max kept walking for a moment, but then she remembered that she was in Japan, where “Jones-kun” was her title, until she actually made friends who she could tell to call her Max. However, considering she had been here for a month, and the rumors about her still hadn’t stopped spreading, she would be comfortable betting all of her instruments that she wasn’t going to make friends anytime soon. The strawberry blonde stopped and turned, gazing up at the PE teacher. Instinctively, she took a step back, so she didn’t hurt her neck trying to look up at him. Also, he was standing way too close to her. “Hello, Kamoshida-senpai,” she said carefully. “I can help?”

He smiled down at her, and Max did her best not to flinch. His smile, somehow, was worse than the other teachers’ smiles-- just as condescending, but there was something containing more...something. It wasn’t a good something, and it made Max want to get away from him as soon as she possibly could. “Do. You.” Kamoshida pointed at her slowly but firmly. “Know.” He pointed repeatedly to the side of his head. “How to play volleyball?” He set the volleyball that he had been carrying under his arm like a has-been volleyball player who had nothing going for him in his life anymore.

_“Okay, Max, that was just mean,” she chastised herself in her head._ He was creepy, for sure, but to be fair, she didn’t trust any of the faculty at this school. Why trust someone who just viewed you as a burden and a waste of their own oh-so precious time?

“Yes,” she said simply, keeping all of the negative emotions in the back of her head. Kamoshida’s grin widened, and she smiled fakely back at him.

_Please leave._

“Good!” Kamoshida gave her a thumbs up and handed her a bright yellow flyer to her, advertising the volleyball try-outs that were coming up. Max nodded in understanding, and bowed to him slightly.

“Thank you, Kamoshida-senpai, for information. I go to lunch,” she muttered before rushing away. She passed by a blonde, Saka-something, she didn’t really pay attention to whatever the other students were saying about each other, even if she was pretty sure that he was in her class. The more she cared, the harder it was for her when she remembered her squashed desires for friends and damn it, just something resembling happiness. 

“Another victim,” Saka-something said spitefully. Something about his tone caused her to grit her teeth. “Doesn’t even speak Japanese, but she’ll bend backwards to please him, like every student here. What a joke.” 

Max didn’t know if it was because he referred to her as a victim, or because he compared her to all of the gossipy nitwits that assumed she was lesser because she couldn’t speak Japanese as well as they could, but something snapped in her brain. She spun on him and glared at him.

“Shut up!” 

Saka-whoever jumped back, clearly surprised at her reaction, and Max froze. 

She had just spoken. She had spoken Japanese to another student for the first time in her month-long period at Shujin Academy, and her first words had been “Shut up?” Whoever was in charge of the universe, please kill her. Quickly, she got her wits about her and mustered as much dignity as she could. “Not a victim. Not like other people. Stop,” she explained further, standing up straighter. She couldn’t bring herself to look the blonde student in the eye, so she stared past him at the wall. 

_Pretty wall-work. Yyyyyyyep. Pretty wall...all painted with the school colors and stuff._

“You can understand me?” he asked, looking both shocked and angry. “Have you been lying to everyone to get some kind of special treatment or something?”

Max balled her fists at her sides. This kid was as dense as a ball of takoyaki, and his accusations were only making her blood boil even more. Did no one at this hell of a school understand? Did no one understand that she didn’t want to be here either? Did no one get that the only reason she never spoke was because her Japanese sounded like it was coming from a toddler’s mouth? Why had she even bothered trying to stand up for herself in the first place? Why…

“Frick, uhhhh...uhhhh, stop crying? Please? I’m sorry, I guess? I just don’t get why you wouldn’t talk if you knew how to speak Japanese?” Saka-whatever said, though every phrase that passed through his lips sounded more like a question rather than a statement. 

Max brought a hand to her cheek and was surprised to see that tears had actually fallen. That hadn’t happened since her first day here. She rubbed at her eyes furiously with the sleeve of her Shujin blazer. “Bad with talk,” she finally answered, despite the growing lump in her throat. “Understand, but no talk.”

The other student nodded slowly. “So, uh, you can’t speak Japanese all that well, but you can understand what I’m saying right now?”

Max nodded, sniffing back the rest of her tears. Who knew what the rest of the students would say if they saw her crying? “Yes.” 

A silence passed between the two as students rushed by them trying to get to their lunch spots. The kid finally cursed under his breath and pulled her towards him and the vending machine and gestured at the machine. 

“Which soda do you want?” he asked, pulling out two bills of yen. Max blinked, confused.

“What?” she asked. 

“Which soda do you want?” he asked again, slower this time. Despite saying the sentence slower, he didn’t sound like he was babying her, like some of her teachers did when she stayed after class to ask a question about the homework. 

“Why?” Max asked, revising the question. The kid looked down at his shoes and shuffled his feet. 

“I guess I kind of feel like an asshole. You know, for asking you if you were trying to get special treatment. Making you cry. I know a lot of people don’t like me much, but even I don’t like making girls I don’t know cry,” he explained, cracking his neck by rotating his neck side to side. 

Max cocked her head to the side, studying him. He didn’t seem to be making fun of her in any way. “The girls you know cry?” 

He paused his neck cracking and stared at her, confused. “I mean yeah? Girls cry all the time. I mean, guys cry too, I guess, but-” He stopped short and stared at her for a moment, processing the other meaning behind her words. “Wha-hey! I don’t make them cry either!” 

For what seemed like the first time in months, Max cracked a small smile and snorted. She pointed to one of the melon-flavored sodas in the vending machine. “Personality?” she suggested in an innocent tone. The kid’s mouth dropped in offense again, and this time, she full-on laughed at his expression as he spluttered out some witty retort, but she patted his shoulder comfortingly. “Jokes.” Her soda fell out and she picked it up. “Thank you very much. Name?” she asked, pointing at him. 

He stared down at her, as if deciding if it was worth it to get involved with her. “Name’s Sakamoto Ryuji. What’s your name, American?” he asked, leaning up against the wall as he unscrewed the cap of his Pepsi. 

Max raised an eyebrow at the title. “Jones Max.” She unscrewed her soda and let out a string of curse words in English as the fizz spurted this way and that, getting on her face, her uniform, and her hands. Sakamoto snickered, but in his defense, Max supposed, he did try to hold it back when she glared at him. “Thanks,” she drawled, trying to make her tone as sarcastic as possible to let the kid know she was less than amused. 

“Don’t mention it.” 

The two sipped their sodas in awkward silence for a while, slouched over their drinks while they leaned back against the wall. Sakamoto seemed to be doing it to appear standoffish, which, granted, didn’t seem to be that hard for him. However, Max was trying to be as small as possible, trying to cover the light pink stains on her white shirt. Maybe they got some guarded looks, maybe they didn’t; Max was just trying to gauge whether or not she could make this situation work. Having a friend, an intimidating friend at that, might make the rumors stop. No one would be dumb enough to spread rumors about a buff, athletic-looking kid like Sakamoto right?

“Wow. Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Max heard a girl with a giant pink bow at the base of her bun say in shock to her friend. Her friend, who was sporting a classic black headband, nodded.

“If you mean the school troublemaker being friendly with the slow American, then yes,” she replied. “Do you think she knows what he’s saying? Or did he just smile and she assumed that means he’s being nice?”

The girl with the bow snorted. “If there’s one thing about Sakamoto-san that I know, it’s that he’s the opposite of nice.”

Headband Girl nodded solemnly. “Completely true.” 

Max’s brows furrowed. The dude had just bought her a soda with caffeine and was letting her stand next to him when she had yelled at him in the first place. What the hell was the definition of “nice” in Japan if this wasn’t it?

“Just ignore them,” Sakamoto advised boredly. “If you’re gonna hang out with me, you’ll get used to it eventually.” 

Max looked up at him, shocked. “You want friends?” 

Sakamoto looked offended. “Of course I want friends. What kind of freak do you think I am? I just bought you a soda, didn’t I? ‘S not my fault if you don’t think I’m nice enough,” he snapped. He pushed himself off the wall, and picked readjusted his bag on his shoulder. Max panicked. She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her as he tried to leave. 

“Stop. Please,” Max begged, miming a “stay” motion with her hands. Sakamoto looked down at her, crossing his arms impatiently, but he didn’t leave. She dug through her bag that was covered end-to-end with various pins and photograph key-chains of her and her friends from the States. She pulled out a notebook and frantically began writing her intended message. She handed Sakamoto the notebook. 

He squinted at the page as he read her haphazard katakana, and she prayed that the message made more sense than her fragmented spoken Japanese did. His shoulders relaxed, and he sent a reluctant smile her way. “No wonder you don’t speak. You’re going to really piss someone off one day,” Sakamoto responded, smirking.

Max’s shoulders relaxed, but she gave him a look that she hope screamed, “No shit, Sherlock!” However, she stayed silent and waited for his serious answer. 

“Eh. Why not? Just don’t kill my vibe, alright newbie?” 

Max blinked as he turned and walked away. Max blinked. Did she make a friend just by asking? What, was she back in second grade where this sort of thing was common and acceptable? Wait, if he said yes, then why was he walking away? What was even happening?

Sakamoto walked back to her and raised an eyebrow expectantly. “Well? You coming or not, friend?” he asked, emphasizing the last word to make sure there was no miscommunication this time around. He waved his arm towards him, and she found herself following him to the roof.

And so began the friendship of the slow American and Shujin Academy’s resident troublemaker. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jumping straight into the fun stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!
> 
> First off, thank you so much for the kudos and words of support! I'm glad I'm doing a good job so far! 
> 
> Second, this chapter was originally part of a mega super chapter, so it might be a little shorter for that reason. I'll probably upload the next chapter on Monday. Enjoy!

_ One month later… _

Max’s left leg jittered up and down as she glanced at the clock on the wall one more time. 8:57. Where the hell was Ryuji? It wasn’t unusual for her friend to not show up to class on time, but he usually had the forethought to message her beforehand to let her know so that she could make up an excuse for him. Less trouble for the both of them that way, as Mr. Hiruta seemed somewhat satisfied that his two problem students seemed to make each other more proactive in their studies. 

As Mr. Hiruta began to take roll, Max felt a sudden shiver take over her body, causing her head to pulse and her stomach to clench up in knots. She shakily raised her hand as Mr. Hiruta called her name. Sweat began beading on her forehead as Mr. Hiruta raised an eyebrow at her. “Would you happen to know where Sakamoto-kun is, Jones-chan?”

Max shook her head before clearing her throat. Right, she could do this. Ryuji had been obnoxious enough to convince her to practice her Japanese with him. She just had to ask if she could go to the bathroom, or go to the nurse’s office. Who cared if she hasn’t spoken in Japanese to anyone but Ryuji or the teachers? She could do this. Who cared if the students suddenly believed that she was faking not knowing Japanese that well to get attention? 

The clenching in her stomach had only intensified, and Max was fairly certain that whatever was causing her to react this way wasn’t normal. She had been feeling normal before this, so why, all of a sudden, had her body decided to react this way? Nothing about what was happening to her seemed normal. The buzzing of her phone against her hip only added to her agitation. 

Max took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm herself down. Yes, this was weird. Yes, Ryuji wasn’t here to make her laugh with an over-exaggerated gesture of some sort. Yes, her stomach felt like it was trying to turn itself inside out. She could handle it, though. 

“Question tiiiiiiime! Let’s see...Ah, Jones-chan. What is it called when your nervous system-”

Max proceeded to puke down the front of her uniform and her desk, causing the student in front of her to fall out of his seat in disgust as all of the students recoiled. The girls were shrieking at the sight and scent of acidic vomit while the guys were either laughing or cringing silently in their seats. Before Mr. Hiruta could scold her, Max rushed out of the classroom and into the bathroom. She fumbled with the stall door before opening it, slamming it shut and locking it, and falling to her knees as she puked some more into the toilet. 

_ “I didn’t even have breakfast this morning,”  _ she rasped in her native tongue to the toilet bowl as the taste of bile stuck uncomfortably to her tongue and to the roof of her mouth.  _ “What kind of bullshit is this?”  _

Of course, the abused toilet didn’t respond, but Max just tried to even out her shaky gasps into something resembling the act of breathing. Finally, her stomach calmed down, but the vibrating of Max’s phone against her hip did her no favors. Groaning, she drew the phone out of her pocket. Max swore that if it was Ryuji texting to tell her that he was sick or something, she was going to lose her shit. 

However, instead of a message notification, a demonic-looking icon had taken up the majority of her screen-- an eye with a star pupil and ominous black spikes sticking to the outer circle of the eye, like a menacing sun promising destruction. She clicked it a couple times to get rid of it, before muttering,  _ “Why does that look like a flag of some sort of twisted castle from Match of Crowns?” _

When she felt the last wave of nausea leave her, she hesitantly looked at her phone again. The creepy app was still there.  _ “Are you some kind of spyware app? Is there some perv watching me right now?”  _ she asked the phone. 

The pulse came again, stronger this time, and she thrust her head back into the toilet, dry-heaving up nothing until her torso felt like it was tearing itself apart. Why was the blood-rushing coming in waves? Even when she was sick, this was not something she had ever experienced before. Tears were streaming down her face at this point as were meandering trails of drool. _ “God, please don’t let a teacher walk in right now…”  _ she pleaded in a whisper. 

Max felt the same pulse shudder through her body again, and she moaned lowly, only registering the toilet disappearing from under her head in the back of her mind as she waited for the pulsing to stop. Only when it did, the toilet and tiled floors had disappeared in favor of a plush red carpet that felt like it was just throwing her body heat back at her. Her eyebrows furrowed as she shakily stood up, wobbling a bit to one side to keep her balance.

“What the hell?” she muttered to herself, looking around. Just as the bathroom had disappeared, so had the rest of Shujin Academy, leaving red plush carpets and giant suits of armor lining the corridor. She jumped as she heard a shriek echo through the halls along with the rubbery thwack of what sounded eerily similar to the volleyballs hitting the gym floor in the real Shujin Academy. Suddenly, everything made sense. “I must have passed out in the bathroom. This is a dream. This is fine,” she muttered to herself before squeaking as another shrill cry sounded through the castle. “Why is this terrifying? It’s my dream. I should have a mountain of soda or something,” she grumbled as she walked through the halls. 

Max wandered for a bit, finding nothing but more red carpet and more silver suits of armor. Did she really have so little of an imagination? She wrote songs in her spare time, for crying out loud. Even if they weren’t very good, that HAD to count for something, didn’t it? She had to have been able to think of something cooler and less cliche than a stupid castle with hallways that all looked the same. 

“Courtesan Jones! What are you doing out of your quarters?” 

Max turned around and did her best not to burst out laughing. This dream was seriously all her brain could come up with when she was passed out on the bathroom floor? Silver and grey knights in shining armor calling her an adviser? “Yes, that’s me. Max Jones, the Courtesan. What can I do for you, gentlemen?” She bowed theatrically to them, giggling all the while. 

The two knights looked at each other and knelt so that they were eye-level with her. “You. Don’t. Belong. Out. Here,” the knight on the left explained slowly and patronizingly, gesticulating with broad arm motions to get his point across. 

Max’s amusement with the utter stupidity of this dream went from 10 to 5 rather quickly. “Then, pray tell, where do I belong, tough guy? In a meeting room? Please, by all means. These hallways are stupid anyways,” she retorted, wrinkling her nose. “Who did the decorating, by the way? As a courtesan, I demand they be fired,” Max finally huffed, finishing her haughty lecture. 

_ “If this is my dream, I’m going to have as much fun as I can with this,”  _ she thought to herself. 

The two stepped back, startled. “W-watch your tone, courtesan! You are still a subject of the great King Kamoshida!” 

Max couldn’t help but gag again at the statement, and she was grateful that nausea didn’t exist in this dream world. “Ew, no! Why would I be hired as a courtesan for a teacher? That’s weird as hell,” she groused. “Come on, don’t you think you should take a courtesan’s word for it? My advice is invaluable!” 

The guards, again, looked taken aback, and Max was convinced that she was going into a state of brain failure because there is no way that she would have made her dream this stupid and messed up. She put her hands on her hips. “Look fellas, I’m just trying to navigate my own dream here, so why don’t you skedaddle back to King Kamoshida or whoever and leave me alone?” 

The two guards, instead of answering her, turned to each other. “She’s never spoken this much before. What should we do?” the taller one asked. 

“She seems to be under the impression that she is the ruler of this castle, not King Kamoshida,” replied the shorter one. “Do you think she’s confused?” 

“She’s got to be. She wouldn’t act out otherwise. We can’t punish her without the king’s orders, but she’ll resist going to the King. If we hurt her before he can enjoy her, there would be serious trouble!” 

Max rolled her eyes and walked away. Fine, if her dream was being stupid, then that had nothing to do with her. She made it halfway up the stairs before the two guards sprinted up behind her and cut off her route. “You should be back in your quarters, courtesan! You are not allowed to be out without King Kamoshida’s permission!”

“And yet here I am,” Max finally snapped, her fists clenching. “Look, I don’t know what your trouble is with me when you are a part of MY dream, but I don’t answer to you and I sure as hell don’t answer to creepy teachers in any dream. Fuck off!” She tried to barge past them, only for the taller one to grasp her wrist and twist her arm behind her back. She yelped as she felt the skin around her wrist tear. 

“I think there’s an appropriate place for you to rethink your actions. We will come take you back to your living quarters when you decide to behave,” the guard snapped. The other guard took Max’s other wrist and began dragging her towards a painting. Max screamed as she kicked at one of the guards, but she only felt a jolt of pain go up her ankle. 

“Think it’s an American thing?” the shorter guard wondered. The taller one shrugged as the painting opened up as not a painting, but a door. Max grit her teeth. 

“It’s not an American thing, assholes, it’s a ‘you’ve pissed me off’ thing,” she snarled. “Let go of me!” Max tried to push forward out of their grasp, only to stretch her ankle by nearly toppling down some stone stairs.  _ “At least it’s not the red carpet and black and white tiles anymore,” _ she thought with no small amount of sarcasm. 

She was breathing hard by the time they stopped at a cell. “Oi, Cat! You’ve got company. Enjoy her, because she won’t be here long,” the guard hollered as he unlocked it and shoved the girl in. As soon as she hit the floor, she was up trying to run back out the door. It slammed her in the forehead, and she stumbled backwards as a result. 

“Behave, American. Don’t want King Kamoshida getting tired of his exotic pet now, now would we?” the guard cooed. 

Max glared at the guard through the door as the guards laughed viciously, walking away. She stood up shakily and kicked the door again. “Well…” Max struggled to think of a good comeback. “Fuck you too,” she hollered. The two guards didn’t respond, so she kicked the door repeatedly. “Come back and let me out, you sons of bitches!” 

“It’s no use trying to reason or threaten the guards,” a voice said. Max whirled around, looking around the cell wildly. 

“Who said that?” 

“Down here.”

Max looked down and her breath caught in her throat. A black and white cat with large cartoonish eyes blinked at her, brandishing a yellow bandanna around his neck. 


	3. Chapter 3

Max blinked and took a deep but wavering breath. “Hi,” she said. The cat smirked sympathetically at her. 

“Hi,” it responded. “Are you okay?” 

“No.” The answer was instantaneous. “This dream really sucks. You’re the best part of it so far.” The cat tugged on her tights to get her to sit down. She took the hint and did so. 

“I know this may not make you feel any better, but this isn’t a dream,” the cat informed her. “It seems you’ve fallen into the Metaverse from the real world. Do you remember how you got here?” 

Max felt her stare narrow. “No, this is a dream. I went to school, got sick, and passed out in the bathroom. And considering that I don’t recognize the term ‘Metaverse’ I’m pretty sure that this means it’s a dream,” she snapped. Before the cat could argue, she sighed. “I’m sorry if I’ve offended you, but I know the difference between reality and a dream. And since this is not reality, it has to be a dream.” 

The cat just sighed, but it didn’t try to argue with her. “Do you need help with your injuries?” the cat asked, gesturing at her bruised forehead and wrist. Max sighed and gave the cat a tired but grateful smile.

“If you happen to have a first-aid kit on you, I’d really appreciate the help,” she told it honestly. 

The cat chuckled. “Don’t worry, I have something even better. Dia!” A light glowed over the creature, and green sparkles glimmered around Max’s face and wrist. Max felt the pain shrink, shrink, and shrink some more until it was gone completely. In awe, she touched the spot on her forehead where the bruise had been only to feel no pain. Just to check, she looked down at her wrist only to find that the ring of bruising had completely disappeared. Experimenting even further, she moved her ankle in a circle, finding no discomfort whatsoever.

“Neat trick,” she said, grinning. “Thank you.” 

The cat sniffed, obviously proud of itself. “You’re welcome. What’s your name, fellow cellmate?” 

Max chuckled. “Max. Nice to meet you. What’s yours?” 

“I am Morgana,” the cat said proudly. “Shadows caught me while I was looking around. Now what about you?” The cat, no, Morgana looked concerned again. “What did they mean when they called you Kamoshida’s pet?” 

Max’s smile fell back into a scowl. “Hell if I know. All I know is that I finished throwing up, woke up here, and the metal jerks decided to tell me that I was apparently supposed to be in my quarters,” Max used air quotes around “quarters” while rolling her eyes, “because King Kamoshida decided that’s where I was supposed to be,” she finished, grumbling. 

Morgana went to say something but seemed to think better of it. Max noticed, and her gaze narrowed once more. “What is it?” 

“You might not like it because it goes against your own theory,” Morgana warned her. Max shrugged and leaned back against the cell wall. 

“Look, I’m trapped here until I either die or wake up. I’ve got time to listen to dream arguments” Max assured, even though Morgana looked startled at her frankness about the situation. Morgana shrugged back at her. 

“Okay. You gave me permission though,” he reminded her. “I think that there’s another version of you in the Palace.” 

Max blinked and then blinked again, taking in Morgana’s words. “Okay. That wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that my brain’s ever thought of. So the guards thought I was the other Max?”

“Precisely,” Morgana answered. “But you’re the real one. The other version seems to be Kamoshida’s cognition.” 

Max was silent as she tried to wrap her head around Morgana’s words. She failed. “I don’t know what that means,” she admitted. “Are you talking, like, psychology? Or am I misunderstanding you here?” 

Morgana made an unsure noise, and Max had to restrain herself from snapping at him that he wasn’t helping at all. It wouldn’t do to scare away her only ally in this nightmare of a...what did Morgana call it again? A Metaverse? “Sort of,” Morgana finally said. “Like, this is all happening inside of Kamoshida’s subconscious, something like his soul. The real Kamoshida’s going about his day in the real world, while here in his subconscious--”

“He sees himself as a king,” Max finished. Morgana nodded, relieved that he was making progress. 

“Yes! Exactly. People from the real world exist here too, but they’re only here as he sees them, his perceptions of them. It seems like you know him in real life, if he has a cognition of you here,” Morgana explained further. “Do you know Kamoshida?”

Max nodded. “Yeah. He’s the gym teacher and volleyball coach at my school. I don’t really talk to him all that much though. He’s always seemed creepy to me, and my friend really hates his guts since he disbanded the track team he was on,” she replied, rubbing her temples. “I don’t get why he’d have a version of me here, though. I mean, he teaches my gym class, but there’s a lot of us, and I don’t really talk to him,” she rambled, tapping her fingers on the stone. “And why would his conception of me be an adviser? I don’t talk at my school, period.” 

Morgana looked at her oddly. He opened his mouth to ask a question, but a sudden clang echoed through the dungeon followed by a very familiar voice shouting, “You BASTARDS!”

Max stood up, alarmed. “That was Kamoshida.” 

So he was here. Did that mean the talking cat’s theory was correct? 

_No. Absolutely not. Don’t go there, Max._

“What happened?” Morgana wondered, standing up as well, going to the cell door. His comically-wide eyes got even bigger as two figures seemed to be running towards them. “Hey, I think some prisoners escaped!” 

Max stepped to the door and looked out, brightening when she saw that Morgana was correct. “Yeah! Maybe we can get them to let us out.”

“I thought you said this was only a dream,” Morgana retorted, a gloating smile on his face. 

Max scoffed, but she smirked back. “Doesn’t mean a damn thing. Still sucks being trapped with a smart-ass cat like you.”

“I am not a cat. Hey!” 

The two escaped prisoners stopped, breathing hard as they looked around. Max took a sharp breath in. She’d recognize that spiky blonde hair anywhere. The other one in the dramatic black overcoat and black and white mask wasn’t familiar at all, but she had never been so relieved to see the spiky hairstyle. 

“Blondie! Frizzy Hair! Down here,” Morgana pleaded. The two looked down, and Max managed to catch a glimpse of his eyes. Same color, so there was no doubt.

“A cat?” Ryuji asked. 

“I am NOT a cat! Say that again, and I’ll make you regret it!” 

“You sure look like a cat,” said the mystery prisoner. 

“I’m not,” Morgana insisted, spiking up his fur.

“Sakamoto, get us out of here or I’ll never pay for ramen again,” Max finally pleaded, stepping closer to the bars and holding them. Ryuji took a step back and almost fell into the river.

“Max? What the hell are you doing here? Why aren’tcha in class?” he asked, shock written across his features. 

“I could ask you the same thing,” Max retorted, stepping back and crossing her arms. “Hiruta was asking about where you were, and I couldn’t even tell him! Why weren’t you in first period?” 

“I was here,” Ryuji exclaimed. “So me and this guy,” Ryuji pointed to himself and the newcomer, “were on our way to the school, but we musta taken a wrong turn or something, because we found this place instead!” He examined Max’s face with scrutiny. “Wait, you were in first period?” 

“Yeah! I threw up, and you weren’t there to help distract Hiruta for me, so I ran to the bathroom, and I think I passed out and hit my head,” she rushed. “And let me tell you.” She gestured wildly around the cell. “Worst. Dream. Ever!” 

“You can talk later,” Morgana commanded, even though it sounded more like a plea. “Look, you’re Max’s friend, right? I’m her friend now too, so let us out,” he begged. “You want to know where the exit is? I can take you there! All you have to do is let us out.” 

“Cat telling the truth, Max?” Ryuji asked. “Or did it lock you in here and is trying to trick us?” he asked.

“The cat is black. I think we can trust it,” Ryuji’s companion said. Everyone stared at the black-haired student for a moment, confused, but he just shrugged in response. “Black cats are signs of good luck.” 

Max blinked for a second, befuddled, before remembering that she was talking to two Japanese students. The black cat wasn’t a symbol of bad luck here like it was in the United States.

_Wait a damn minute…_

“Since when can you speak fluent English?” she demanded, pointing a finger at Ryuji’s face through the bars. “Have you just been watching me make a fool of myself for a fucking month, Sakamoto?” 

Ryuji made an annoyed face at her, but it was laced with confusion. “Max, what the hell are you talking about? If anything, you’ve been holding out on me! You’re speaking real good Japanese right now!” 

Max’s mouth dropped open in offense. “No I’m not! You’re speaking good English!”

“Metaverse makes it so that everyone can understand one another because we’re all connected via thoughts,” Morgana rushed to explain. “Now can you please let us out of this cell?! The keys are on the wall!”

“Fine, but if you get us killed I’m coming after you, cat!” Ryuji grabbed the keys and unlocked the cell. 

“Hey!” 

Max glared at the two guards who originally put her in the cell. “Give up the consort and relinquish the prisoner before your executions,” the taller guard from before snapped. 

“Shit, they’ve found us again,” Ryuji yelped, backpedaling. 

“Leave us alone, you dicks,” Max yelled. She felt her body for something, anything, on her person that could be used as a weapon, but she found nothing as Morgana shoved her and Ryuji back behind him.

“Amateurs,” he said with a grin. He turned to the dramatically-dressed stranger. “Hey, Frizzy Hair! You can fight right?”

“Yeah,” the guy replied shortly, but Max could tell that he wasn’t entirely convinced of his answer.

“Then let’s go!” Morgana did a front flip and pushed his chest up to the sky, paws on his hips. “Zorro!” 

The same light that had been in the cell when Morgana got rid of Max’s wounds blinded Max once more, shooting upwards and seeming to envelope Morgana. Max yelped and leapt backwards. 

“What the hell?!” she shrieked. 

“Arsene,” Drama Boy called, and the same thing happened, leaving Max completely freaked out and completely confused.

“What the actual fuck is going on, Ryuji?” she asked as the two guards took the shape of two ghost-like horses. Morgana used a wind attack to buff the two guards, blowing Max’s hair into her face. 

Ryuji shrugged helplessly, and Max felt her body tense up as she noticed how tired Ryuji looked. Seeing her usually-energetic best friend in such a state made her want to strangle the two guards. Messing with her was one thing, but her only friend? 

_Fuck that!_

She continued grasping at her body until she found a sturdy rectangular object. No thoughts whatsoever running through her head, as Drama Boy downed the first enemy, Max rushed into the fight, screaming bloody murder with the object in her hand, and she threw it as hard she could at the grass horse’s face. The demonic horse whinnied as it recoiled onto its back, its legs kicking uselessly in the air. 

Drama Boy just blinked, obviously startled and confused. “Okay…?” 

Morgana did not waste any time as he made his Zorro cast a final wind attack, causing the horse to disintegrate with her…

Max felt her now-empty pocket one more time, and she grit her teeth in frustration, because she was a fucking idiot. “Did I seriously just throw my cell phone?!” 

Drama Boy jogged over to her cell phone and picked it up before awkwardly giving it back to her. “Thanks,” he said simply. Frantically, Max tapped on the screen and watched as it lit up. At least it still worked, but now there was a giant spiderweb crack in the middle of her screen that made it impossible to see. She groaned as she gently put it back in her pocket. 

“Why am I like this?” she hissed to herself. 

Ryuji wasn’t helping; rather, he was being unhelpful as fuck as he snickered at her suffering and stupidity. “Nice throw,” he managed to say. 

Max glared at him before looking down at Morgana, who was looking at her both in confusion and in fear. “The-the exit is this way,” he stammered, looking away from Max’s face. 

The quartet managed to make their way to a duct after a few more encounters with, as Morgana called them, “Shadows.” The rest of their escape was a blur, and she thought Morgana had mentioned that their were more prisoners being kept there, but she couldn’t be sure with the rush of blood pounding in her ears. Max and Ryuji had stayed out of Drama Boy and Morgana’s way during the fights, and Max refrained from throwing her cell phone again.

“Wait! What about you, Morgana?” Max asked as Ryuji climbed up. 

Morgana waved a paw. “Don’t worry about me for now. Get out of this crazy dream for me.”

“Come on, Max! Let’s go,” Ryuji hissed. 

Max winced and waved at Morgana. “Thanks. I hope things work out.” With that, she disappeared down the duct, and they ended up outside Kamoshida’s castle. Max’s jaw dropped. “So that’s what it looks like from the outside,” she murmured to herself. As the castle began to sway and ripple, Max felt the nausea return, and she gripped Ryuji’s shoulder tightly. 

“Max, you…?” As the castle disappeared from view, Max fell against a brick wall, breathing hard through her nose, keeping back vomit in her throat. “Max, are you with me? Come on, you can’t just sway like that, you’ll make me think that something’s wrong!”

The words were familiar, but Max couldn’t make meaning out of any of them at the moment. She swallowed hard before responding. _“Ryuji, I can’t understand what you’re saying,”_ Max said in English. He had been able to understand her perfectly just a second, what had gone wrong?

“It seems you’ve fallen into the Metaverse from the real world,” Morgana’s voice echoed in her head as black edges encroached on her vision. 

_Was it really a dream? Why am I not in the school’s bathroom? That’s where I was throwing up. What is happening what is happening what is happening--_

“Whoa, Max, stay with me! You’re all good, I promise--” Ryuji’s words faded away with her vision, and Drama Boy cried something out that Max couldn’t understand.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new character joins the story!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Here's chapter 4. A little bit of a filler chapter, but it will be necessary to build later chapters. Thanks for your patience and support!

Max let her eyelids flutter open and closed as she did her best to ignore the pounding in her head. A voice murmured something to her, but it didn’t reach her like it should have, like the words were trying to push through a dense wall of cotton. She squinted her eyes shut, not at all in the mood to deal with whoever was trying to bother her now.

_“I can’t understand what you’re saying,”_ she groaned. “ _Speak louder or go away!”_

Instead of speaking up like she requested, someone began poking her forehead incessantly, and the laugh gave away who it was--incessant and just high-pitched enough to make it seem like he never hit puberty. Based on how much he acted like an annoying younger brother despite being 18 months older, Max was pretty sure that he hadn’t. 

_"Alexander, I will destroy you, and no one will ever find any evidence,”_ Max hissed in English, finally sitting up. She closed her eyes as her vision began to swim once more, but she could clearly envision her older brother’s superior smirk. 

“It seems that she hit her head when she fainted, so she may be a bit sore and confused for the next couple of hours, but it doesn’t appear that she has any sort of concussion,” the Shujin nurse informed. “Are you sure that you two wouldn’t like an escort home from one of the teachers? Principal Kobayakawa wouldn’t mind finding someone, I’m sure,” the gaunt woman informed. Alexander opened his mouth to say something, but Max jumped in. 

“I can go home myself,” Max interrupted before turning to Alexander. “Play circuits or something.” She moved to grab her backpack which someone had dropped off to the nurse’s office, but she breathed in sharply as her head decided that moving was supposed to be difficult. 

“Please ignore my little sister. She’s just stubborn,” Alexander said to the nurse. “Thank you very much for the offer, but I’ve already contacted our family’s driver, and he’ll be here shortly,” he assured further. Making matters even more embarrassing, he grabbed Max’s backpack for her, and linked their elbows tightly enough so that Max couldn’t escape. She grumbled curse words under her breath as they left, and when they were out of the nurse’s office, Alexander’s saintly patient face turned into a frustrating smug expression.

_"Such language, Maxie,”_ he said to her once they were out of the office.

_"I don’t need you to escort me anywhere. Just go to your Robotics meeting instead. It’s not like I can’t get home on my own, especially if you got Dad to call Ruminiya,”_ Max snapped. 

_“Mom and Dad are at a meeting for the firm tonight, so it’s just you and me. If I went to the meeting, then you’d be alone, and you’d do something stupid to aggravate both your stomach and your head wound. So no,”_ Alexander answered, infuriatingly calm. Max remained silent, the whispers of Shujin Academy pervading the echoes of pain in her skull. 

“Oh, what a good brother Jones-kun is! If I were Jones-chan, I would be thankful every day!” 

“How is it that they’re brother and sister? They’re nothing alike!” 

“I feel bad for Jones-kun. It always seems like he’s helping her out, but she hasn’t really done anything…”

“Jones-kun is the most attractive nerd I’ve ever seen!” 

Max didn’t know which possibility annoyed her more--that Alexander was completely oblivious to the comments and just lived happily in his own little nerd world, or that he knew about the comments and just ignored them completely, even when some of them were about their interactions. 

“Hey! Max!” 

Immediately, Max brightened, seeing Ryuji coming down the stairs with--

Her stomach dropped. He was no longer the dramatic stranger, but the frizzy hair and grey eyes gave him away. How was she recognizing him now when it had just been a dream? 

_Unless, it hadn’t. No, brain, shut up!_

“Oh, sorry! She’s still a little dazed from the bump on her head,” Alexander apologized, though he didn’t sound sorry about it in the slightest. 

“Repeat please, Ryuji?” Max asked, trying to shake...whatever the hell had just happened to her...out of her head. 

“Just askin’ if you’re feeling better. You weren’t really in a good spot when we brought you back here,” Ryuji explained. 

“Sorry for not getting you back here faster,” the stranger apologized, looking actually sheepish. 

Max tried to smile at the two boys, but it probably came off as more of a grimace. “No problems. Tired,” she answered. “Thanks.” 

Ryuji smiled at her, but his eyes were narrowed the way that they always did when he knew that she was spouting her usual bullshit. “Cool. Think you’ll be back tomorrow or nah?” 

“That depends on whether or not her vitals are normal when we get back to our house,” Alexander answered for her. Max gave him a tired glare, but Alexander did an expert job of avoiding her gaze. “We’ll have a doctor waiting for us when we get back.” 

Max gave him an incredulous stare, turning her head despite the feeling of whiplash from just moving her head slowly. _“When the hell did you have the time to call a doctor?”_ she asked. 

Alexander pointedly ignored her question, so she ignored him back in favor of talking to Ryuji like normal. “Probably. Shit comes and goes,” she answered, waving a hand and once again ignoring her brother who was glaring at her for her crass language. “Want me gone, Ryuji?” 

Ryuji snorted. “Never. Teachers go easier on me when you’re there. I can meet up with you tomorrow if you want the homework,” he offered. Max chuckled and was about to answer, when--

“I’ll be getting her homework for her if she stays home tomorrow,” Alexander reassured him, effectively cutting her off. She scowled at her brother. 

“No problem,” Ryuji said. “Well, me an’ this guy gotta get going. Feel better, Max!”

With that, her friend and his new confidant left, heading back towards the stairs and heading up. Probably to the roof, Max reasoned. For the love, what she wouldn’t give to be joining them at the moment. Once they were out of view, Max glared at Alexander, who, once again, pretended that he couldn’t see how annoyed she was.

_"You know, it wouldn’t kill you to at least pretend to be nice to him,”_ she snapped as they walked down the steps to wait by the gates. _“Just because he’s not like the Robotics Club doesn’t mean that he’s not a good friend!”_

_“He’s a delinquent, and I don’t want you to be near him,”_ Alexander immediately retorted. _“Come on, Maxie! You’re so smart and such a good person, so why do you keep hanging around him so much?You could be friends with literally anyone at this school if you wanted to.”_

_“We weren’t even here when the track stuff happened, so there’s no way to know what happened besides rumors,”_ Max argued. _“Besides, he’s been a better friend to me in the past month than anyone else here. You’re being judgy.”_

Alexander laughed incredulously. _“Judgy?”_

_“Judgy as fuck_.”

_“And I couldn’t help but notice that he’s hanging with the criminal transfer student,”_ Alexander continued. Max vaguely recalled hearing whispers and mutters about a transfer student who was moving to Shujin because his old school had expelled him after he had gotten arrested. Was the frizzy-haired kid the same guy? 

_“Twenty bucks says that he did something harmless and got picked up for it,”_ she retorted. _“Like doorbell ditching as a form of harassment.”_

Alexander rolled his eyes. _“Do you seriously not know?”_ he asked. Max remained silent, but she raised an expectant eyebrow. _“Doorbell ditching and assault are two very different things, Maximilian.”_

_“Don’t call me that,”_ she snapped. The driver pulled up to the curb and Max gave a sigh of relief, knowing full well that her brother wouldn’t start anything in the car. She texted Ryuji. 

**Max-millions: Told you my brother could be a dick.**

**Ryu-yeet: Yeah yeah yeah. I take back what I said about wanting a brother. You in trouble?**

**Max-millions: He couldn’t get me in trouble if he tried.**

**Max-millions: I’ll come and see you after school tomorrow. No way I’m staying at home, but if you think I’m coming to class when I won’t have to, you’re crazy. Also, this is going to sound completely crazy, but did something strange happen before I passed out? Like, talking-cat strange?**

**Ryu-yeet: So you remember that too. Me and Kurusu couldn’t figure it out.**

**Max-millions: Kurusu? You mean frizzy-hair?**

**Max-millions: Ask him what he did to get arrested!**

**Max-millions: I’m curious.**

**Max-millions: I can’t imagine a dude who seriously follows the reasoning of black cats being a good luck symbol makes trusting a talking black cat okay. No way someone like that did anything that bad.**

**Ryu-yeet: Nah. Gonna go kill time at the arcade.**

**Max-millions: Without me? I’m sick what the fuck is this shit**

**Ryu-yeet: Get you an Aquarius when I see you tomorrow.**

**Max-millions: You’re forgiven.**

A hand reached down and slapped the phone out of her hand. 

_“What?”_ she snapped, glaring at Alexander who had turned around in the front seat to glare at her.

_“Did you even hear me?”_ Alexander snapped back. _“Dad wants to know what Ramen to bring back for you on his way home.”_

Max took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Today had been weird, she was pretty sure that the rest of her days were going to be even weirder if her fucked up dream had actually been real, but she was getting Ramen and Aquarius, and that was okay for now.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I'm seeing some newcomers finding this fic, so just know I'm super glad to have all of you reading this story. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!

“And you’re absolutely sure that you don’t want me or Mom to stay home with you?” her dad fretted as she laid in bed. From underneath her bed-head and her plush purple comforter, Max peeked out and responded with a tired whine. 

“We’re home, speak English,” she pleaded.

“You need to practice,” her mother called from the hall. “Kaito, love, have you seen my briefcase?” 

“Should be by your jacket,” her dad boomed back, making Max wince at his volume. She was feeling better than yesterday, her stomach issues completely gone, but the lingering effects included a headache with light and sound sensitivity. The doctor, who Max was mortified to find out was from one of the top hospitals in Tokyo, had recommended a day of rest to ensure that nothing in her system had gotten discombobulated the day before. “I am serious, Maximilian. What happened to you yesterday is not normal, and I really don’t want to leave if you’re still feeling that way,” her father continued, kneeling down enough so that his tie tickled Max’s cheek. Max didn’t reply, so her father sighed. “You can talk to me in English.” 

Max gave him a small but grateful smile, and used his permission. “You need to go into work, Dad,” Max grumbled to him. “You’re the bigshot of the family firm now, you can’t just skip because your daughter’s an idiot who decided to pass out outside the school gates.” 

Kaito Richard Jones kissed his daughter’s forehead with an eye roll and stood up to his full height. Max may have inherited her mother’s delicate facial structure and features, but the father-daughter pair shared their broad shoulders, and their strong tree-trunk bodies. Max hated it when her dad towered over her like this; the man honestly was so intimidating when he was like this, even if she knew that he was the more compassionate and understanding of her parents. His hair was slightly greying, but the impeccable styling (courtesy of her mom) of the normally-wiry black-grey hair gave him more of a silver-fox look. “You’re not an idiot, Max.” He rolled out his shoulders and gave her a mock glare. “Your body’s an idiot. There’s a difference. Tell it to whip into shape.”

Max cringed at just how much of a Dad thing that was to say, but she couldn’t help the amused snort that leaked through. He smiled at getting her to laugh and patted her ankle. “I love you, Birdie. I don’t care if I’m in a meeting or whatever, call me if you start to feel worse or want me to come home.”

“No,” her mother drew out, coming into the room and giving her father a level stare. “You’re meeting with the director and representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office all day today, remember?” 

Unlike Kaito, Sara Jones nee Enatsu was more Japanese than she was American, as she loved to wryly tell her children when they were little. Her mother had been an American diplomat in Japan when she fell in love with Sara’s father, a Japanese innkeeper in Kyoto. In a whirlwind romance, the two immediately left Japan to live their lives as fate would never allow them to live together in Japan, in the fear of his parents’ wrath. 

At least, that was the story Sara spun for her children when they asked about their grandparents, who they had never seen nor met. 

“Call me instead of your father,” her mother instructed. “I’m mostly helping prepare pleadings today, so I’ll be able to sneak away more easily if you need me.” She gave her a daughter a pitying look as Max nodded while still lying down. “Have you taken your temperature this morning?” 

“I literally just woke up,” Max answered in English, and her mom crossed her arms with an expectant stare, and Max groaned. “Waking up...” she trailed off, trying to remember the words for “only” or “just” and her mom sighed. 

“Ignore the adverbs and get the message across. You’ll never get anything done if you stay stuck in your own head.” 

“I woke up,” Max said flatly. “No time.” 

Sara gave her youngest a small smile. “That was better. We just have to get you speaking in complete sentences all the time, and then you’ll move mountains.” She took the thermometer off of the night stand. “Open your mouth.” Max did so obediently and closed her mouth around it. “Do you have plans for getting today’s homework?” 

Max opened her mouth to answer again, only for Alexander to say from the open door, “I’m getting it for her.” 

Her mom gave a smile in her eldest direction, oblivious to Max’s annoyance for stealing her response for the eightieth time in two days. “Great. Thank you, Alexander.”

Max’s dad gave his wife a disapproving look. “She’s still not feeling well, and you want to make her do homework?”

“You know as well as I do that she’ll struggle more in her classes if she doesn’t get that homework right away, Kaito. Now come here, your tie is falling out of the knot.” 

Alexander cleared his throat and got Max’s attention, looking over their parents’ standing bodies to make eye contact with her. “Want me to grab a melon soda from the vending machines for you?” 

Max gave a thumbs-up as she took the thermometer out of her mouth. Alexander gave her a lazy salute in return, yawning as he turned away to make his way to the subway. Her mom, not pausing from re-tying her father’s tie, asked, “What’s it say?” 

Max looked down and did a double-take before remembering that Japan measured in Celsius, like everywhere else in the world except the place she was actually from. “37.2,” she answered. “Means a fever?” 

Her mom hummed. “Could be the start of a small one, but nothing too serious yet. Take it again at noon, and we’ll see if it goes up.” She finished tying her father’s tie before coming back over and bending down to kiss her daughter on the forehead. “Try to nap some if you can. Remember, no pushing yourself at all today. You need that energy for more important things.” 

“We love you, Birdie,” her dad said from the door. 

“I love you too,” she replied. 

Her parents gave her matching sympathetic smiles and closed the door gently as they went to finish getting ready for work. 

Max sat up in bed and unplugged her phone from the charger. 

**Max-millions: So where are we going to start looking for the castle after school? I have to be home before Alexander’s Robotics meeting ends at 6.**

**_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_ **

Ryuji snickered at the message as he and Akira sat on the rooftop during lunch. He had forgotten to turn his phone on silent at the beginning of class, so Hiruta had taken it and wouldn’t let him have it until lunch, but he wasn’t at all surprised at the message. 

“What’s funny?” Akira asked, a sandwich in one hand and a book from the library in his other. Ryuji just waved his hand, not wanting to tell him his plan just yet, in case he denied him right off the bat. 

“Nothin’. Just Max texting me ‘cuz she’s bored of being at home.” 

“Ah.” Akira went back to his sandwich and book before deciding that he couldn’t pretend to not be curious. He closed the book,  _ Arsene Lupin: Gentleman Burglar _ . “What’s her story?” 

Ryuji hummed. “Kinda like you and me. Rumors about her and her brother going off left and right, but the rumors about her are worse. Her brother’s a golden boy with the Robotics Club and everyone thinks that he’s going to take them to a national level. He’s decent-looking I guess, because girls won’t shut up about him,” he grumbled. 

Akira blinked. “Ah. I mean, I got that, especially the part about her brother. But, like, why would an American family move all the way to Japan?”

Ryuji chuckled. “I keep forgetting you’re a transfer from the country. If you must know, farmer boy, her parents are both Japanese-American, but her dad still has family roots here. Her dad’s brother and cousin started a really big law firm here in Tokyo, but I bet you know it. They’ve even taken some cases to the Supreme Court before,” he explained. 

Akira tilted his head. “So they moved to be closer to their lawyer family who probably could never make time to see them anyways?” 

Ryuji’s carefree expression sombered. “Not exactly. Both of them died within a few months of each other, and they were two out of the three main partners. But because it’s actually a family thing, they had in their wills that they wanted her dad to take over. Now both him and Max’s mom work for the firm, so Max and her brother moved here too.” Ryuji hummed thoughtfully. “I am actually positive you had to have heard of them. Apparently, they defended the Inaba murderer from a few years back.”

Akira’s eyes widened. “But...why would they defend someone like that?” He hadn’t actually lived in Inaba at the time, but he used to before that and he felt sick just thinking of the bastard. 

Ryuji shrugged. “I don’t know, man. Defense lawyers gotta make a living somehow. But that’s the Fujiki and Hagihara firm for you.” 

Akira’s eyes widened again. “Wait, really? That’s the firm?” Ryuji gave him an odd look and hummed in affirmation, but he kept talking. “That’s the firm that defended me. My lawyer was a nice guy. There’s no way he would have defended such an asshole.” 

“You probably got Max’s uncle and his team,” Ryuji said. “She didn’t really know him, but she said that he was always super cool when she’s visited before, and him and her dad were super close.” 

Akira studied Ryuji for a minute as the blonde wolfed down the bento box that his mom had made for him. “How long have you and Max been friends?” 

Ryuji looked up, his cheeks full of food. “Hm?” He swallowed. “Me an’ Max?” He thought about it. “A month or so, I guess. She’d been here about a month by that point, and after I bought her a soda, she asked if I wanted to be friends.” 

Akira chuckled. “I didn’t think that worked outside of primary school,” he quipped. Ryuji shrugged. 

“Max is weird like that.” He turned back down towards his phone with a new message. 

**Ryu-King:** **Meet by school gates at 3. Gonna try to get Kurusu to come with.**

“Will she mind?” 

Ryuji looked up from his phone. “What?” 

Akira looked down at his lunch. “I mean, will Jones-san mind that I’m hanging out with you? I’m a criminal, remember? I doubt she would want her friend to hang out with someone that her family’s business only defends for money,” he explained as nonchalantly as he could. He hoped that Ryuji couldn’t see the quaver in his hands. 

Ryuji laughed, much to the transfer student’s surprise. “Are you for real?” He laughed some more. “Dude, Max does not care.” Ryuji’s phone buzzed, indicating an incoming message. He read it and smiled. “Yeah, she totally doesn’t. Check it.” 

**American Psycho: Makes sense. I want to ask if he actually did anything. My bet is on yes, but either as a joke that didn’t pan out or in a total hero move that ended up going badly. The more I think about it, I’m going to guess the second one.**

Akira was startled by the accuracy, and he couldn’t exactly deny any of what she had just texted. Even though it was just a short message, the tone of the message wasn’t quite upbeat, but it wasn’t downright dismissive either. Did she actually know that her family had defended him? Was that why she was texting the way she was? If that was the case, then how did she not recognize him in the castle when his weirdly stylish outfit had disappeared? 

“Right?”

“What?” Akira replied absently. 

Ryuji huffed. “I said Max is cool because she’s not afraid to go for blood. She’ll trip and spill her drink onto the people talking shit about you, if she’s near you. You don’t need to worry about her. You’re with me, so she’s with you by default.” He gave Akira a worried glance. “You always worry this much, bro?” 

Akira shrugged again and picked up his book and sandwich, but the lunch hour came to an end much too soon for his liking. He and Ryuji said their good-byes, and he trudged his way to class. 

“Man, what is it with Sakamoto-san attracting the freaks lately?” a third-year muttered scornfully as he eyed Akira. Akira pretended not to hear him as he pretended to kneel down and tie his shoe. Sure, he wasn’t anxious to know exactly what was being said about him now that he knew for sure that everyone knew about his record, but knowing was better than not knowing, so he could be sure. 

“Seriously,” his friend with the untied shoes grumbled. “First the dumber American, and now the criminal? I think he’s starting a gang!”

“Do you really think that’s it?”

Akira’s eyes widened as a familiar slender figure stepped up to the boys with a miniature robot trailing behind him like a puppy would have been trained to do. “Maybe they’re banding together to freak out idiots like you two,” Alexander butted in, his blue eyes as cold and steely as his voice. “You know, rumors have a way of making you regret everything later. Keep that in mind.” With that, Alexander walked away, his little robot trailing after him. 

The first third-year scoffed. “And then you have that asshole. Who does he think he is? It doesn’t mean shit that girls want him because of his stupid flippy hair. Girls at this school have no taste,” he growled. 

His friend nodded in agreement. “Seriously.” The two moved to go to class, but the one with untied shoelaces yelped as he fell flat on his face, and the students all standing around him giggled and moved around him to get to their classes. “What the hell?” 

He lifted his feet to look at them, only to find that his shoelaces had been tied together in a mysterious turn of events. 

If Max was anything like her brother, Akira thought, he was going to do everything he could to stay on her good side. 

**_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_ **

Max waited impatiently outside the school gates, having arrived a few minutes late to avoid being seen by any students, her brother, or anyone else. She had swallowed three pain pills for her headache, two pills that tasted like sweat mixed with fish oil for the nausea, and had a pair of sunglasses to aid with her light sensitivity. She was about to text Ryuji when…

“GRAH!” Something grabbed her shoulder. 

Max yelped and fell forward, glaring at a laughing Ryuji over her shoulder while the new kid hid an amused smile behind his hand. She gave him a glare and held out her hand. “Aquarius. Then forgive you.” Ryuji rolled his eyes good-naturedly, fishing in his backpack before pulling the grapefruit-flavored drink out of his bag. Immediately, Max brightened and gave Ryuji a thumbs-up. “You forgive!”

“I forgive you,” Ryuji corrected, zipping up his backpack. Max deflated a little, but she repeated the phrase with the correct grammar. “Okay, so here’s the plan. We take the same path that this guy and I did when we ended up at the castle and see if anything changes. Maybe we can end up at the castle again.” 

Max frowned. “No good way. No sense.” 

Ryuji crossed his arms impatiently. “Why not? We got to the castle after we walked the way I normally do to Shujin. Why wouldn’t it work this time?” 

“Don’t have every data,” Max explained, straightening. “I go to the castle, but I go when I’m in the bathroom. How do I go to the castle?” she asked. Ryuji blinked and opened his mouth to answer, only to close it one more time. Max gave him an expectant look, one that said, “Well? I’m waiting for you to explain this nonsense.” 

“Maybe you, like, walked in your sleep to the castle?” 

Max rolled her eyes. “No.” 

“Well, you had to get there somehow! Why not sleep-walking?” 

As the two continued to brainstorm other methods, Akira watched them talk, impressed. Her Japanese wasn’t very good, like he had noticed yesterday, but she sounded more confident when she was talking to Ryuji, and Ryuji seemed to understand everything she said just fine, with little to no misunderstanding, even though her verb tense was obviously off. It was an odd dynamic that these two friends had, but he couldn’t imagine that any other pair of friends in the school could even begin to mimic it. 

“Look, maybe we’ll figure out why you were in the castle if we go with my plan. We can maybe figure it out along the way,” Ryuji said.

Max sighed reluctantly, but she nodded in agreement. Ryuji nodded back, satisfied. “Cool. Let’s just retrace our steps.” He made eye contact with Akira. “Let’s go back to where we first talked, and then work our way along. Sound good?”

“Let’s go,” Akira said. He was surprised that Max let him take the lead behind Ryuji, but she seemed like she was too busy chugging the Aquarius to really care at the moment. The three students walked in focused silence, on a mission.

As they turned a corner, the sun made a bright appearance after hiding behind a cloud, and Max winced behind him, almost dropping her drink. Max shook her head slightly when they made eye contact, but she gave him a small and reassuring smile. She waved her hand forward.

Somehow, Akira knew exactly what was happening, even though the girl hadn’t said a word. The smile had said, “Thanks for noticing, but I’m alright.” The head shake had meant not to say anything as not to alert Ryuji, who Akira was positive would have stopped all progress to make sure she was okay. Then finally, the forward hand meant to just keep going as if everything was normal. How had she been able to convey all that with him as if he were Ryuji? 

“Huh? We’re at school though?” Ryuji looked at his two confidants. “Did either of you notice anything out of place on the way back here?” 

Akira looked up and saw Shujin Academy. He saw Max slump behind him while shaking her head. Ryuji seemed disheartened as well, but that didn’t last long as he physically shook himself out of his disappointment. 

“Let’s try again!”

So they did. And they did again. And one more time. 

Max sat down with her back against the gate, tapping her thigh with the now-empty Aquarius bottle, watching Ryuji pace with an unreadable expression on her face. Akira stood next to her. 

“For real? This doesn’t make an effing sense!” Ryuji stopped pacing and crossed his arms, glaring at them. Well, not at them, but at the situation while they just happened to be objects to glare at. “We did everything we did last time! We all agree that we didn’t imagine the effed-up place, so why can’t we find it?”

“Maybe check on your phone for a castle around here,” Akira suggested

Max smiled at the idea, but it fell quickly when Ryuji sighed. “I already did that,” he grumbled. “I didn’t see anything like it around here.” Ryuji was silent for a moment before something akin to enlightenment showed on his face. “Phone…”

Max stood up again. “What’s up? We find it?” 

Ryuji shook his head, but continued his train of thought. “That reminds me, dude. On your phone, didn’t you have that navigation app thingy on? Back then?” 

Akira looked down at his phone and hummed. “Navigation app?” 

Ryuji shrugged. “I don’t know if it was or not, but I heard stuff that sounded like one coming from your phone. And-and-and it said stuff like, ‘Returned to the real world’ or something?” 

Max raised her hand. “After I faint or before?” 

Ryuji thought about it. “Actually, I think it was the same moment, now that I think about it.” He held out his hand. “Lemme see your phone for a bit.” Akira gave over the phone. 

_ “App,”  _ Max thought. “App,” she said out loud, realization hitting her. She took out her phone and found the strange app from yesterday. “This one?” She pressed the strange occult-looking icon, and the wavy lines and the eye-star symbol of whatever-the-fuck stood out at her. Ryuji found it on Akira’s phone and showed her. The two screens matched. ****

“Wait, when did you get it?” Ryuji asked. Max shrugged, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. 

“I don’t know. It is there yesterday when I’m in the bathroom.”

Ryuji’s brows crinkled together in concentration as he pressed the app. 

“Cute logo, right?” Akira said dryly. Max snorted a laugh, and Ryuji was too busy fiddling to reply. He grinned. 

“Yeah, this is it! It even has your search history,” he said proudly. Max opened the app on her phone, confirming a suspicion in the back of her head. “Am I a genius or what?” 

“Search history from yesterday too,” Max said. She showed Ryuji her phone. “Same or no?” Ryuji squinted and grinned proudly. 

“It is the same! Okay, guys, now we definitely have to use the app. I bet it’ll lead straight to the castle!” 

“Kamoshida. Shujin Academy. Pervert. Castle,” the automated voice read off. Max tapped her thigh in thought. 

_ I never typed that in though. Did I say any of that while the app was open?”  _ she thought to herself. 

“Beginning navigation,” the phone informed them. 

“There we go,” Ryuji cheered. “Then we went in a certain direction and--”

Max gasped as she lost her balance, falling to one knee as the pulse from yesterday set her off balance. Akira caught her by the elbow as Ryuji came to take off her sunglasses. “You good, Max? Tell the truth,” Ryuji demanded. Max pushed herself upright and gave him a long-suffering look.

“I’m fine, Ryuji. Just lost my balance,” she answered, putting the sunglasses back in her pocket. “You two felt the pulse too, right?” 

“We’re back,” Akira said, amazed. “I can understand you better now.” 

The three looked up, and once again, the ominous castle full of Shadows and other unknown dark entities, loomed before them. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Venturing into the palace once more, what will Max discover about the Metaverse?

Max turned to grin at the two boys in excitement, only to giggle when she saw that Akira’s outfit had changed again, turning him back into Drama Boy. 

Akira looked confused, so Ryuji nudged him with his shoulder. “I think she’s laughing at the outfit. You’re in it again,” he explained as Max tried to rein in her laughter. Ryuji lifted up Akira’s arm and examined the coat. “Seriously though, what is with this?” 

Akira smirked and waggled his eyebrows. “You jealous?” 

Ryuji sputtered out a negative response, but his flat denial only made Max laugh harder. “You look great, Kurusu-san,” she finally managed to say. “Don’t listen to Ryuji.” 

“Wha-Hey! My opinion matters, and he asked me! Who asked you, huh?” 

Max blew Ryuji a mocking kiss in response before looking up at the castle walls once more. “So we made it back here. What’s our next move?” 

Ryuji blew out a stream of air. “First off, figure out how we got here. And why his clothes changed.” He ran a hand through his hair. “What’s goin’ on here?! This makes no effin’ sense at all!”

"Hey!” 

The teens’ eyes followed the voice downwards to the edge of the gates. Relief forced its way through Max’s body, and her shoulders dropped out of their position by her ears. “Morgana! You got away!” 

Morgana looked amused. “You seem surprised. Welcome back to your dream,” he said smugly. Max’s face flattened. 

“Okay, you don’t have to be a jerk about it. Any normal person would have had the same idea,” she defended, cheeks reddening as she looked away. Morgana smirked again, but he turned and glared at Ryuji. 

“And you, stop making a commotion!”

“You?” Ryuji asked, bewildered. 

“The Shadows were acting up, so I came back here wondering what it was,” Morgana explained, crossing his stubby paws. He gave them all an appraising look, almost seeming impressed. “To think you would come back to the entrance when you barely managed to escape!” 

“You’re one to talk,” Max replied. “What do you mean, ‘the Shadows were acting up?’ They’re monster creatures, so wouldn’t that mean that they’re always acting up?” 

“Not necessarily,” Morgana answered. “You see--”

“Forget all that,” Ryuji interrupted. “What is this place?” He looked up at the castle again. “Is this...the school?” 

Morgana looked annoyed that he had gotten cut off, but he nodded in response nonetheless. “That’s right.” 

“But...it’s a castle!”

Max recalled Morgana’s words from yesterday. “This is Kamoshida’s perspective of the school, right? And since he’s the king,” Max put air quotes around the word ‘king,’ “That’s why we see it as a castle too?” 

Morgana smiled. “Precisely. You learn quicker than Blondie over here.” 

Ryuji ignored the not-a-cat’s quip and crossed his arms. “Kamoshida?” he asked. The silence he received only answered his question, and he laughed bitterly. “Of course that’s how the bastard sees the school. But how can we see his perspective?” He gasped. “Are we psychic?!” 

“Trust me on this--you’re not psychic, and I don’t think you ever will be,” Morgana replied. “His distorted desires have warped his cognition so much so that this castle formed, a place where he is the ruler.” 

Ryuji stared at the creature, blinking slowly as he tried to take in the information. “Kamoshida...distorted…?” He stomped his foot and glared at Morgana. “Ugh, can’t you at least explain it in a way that makes sense?!” 

Morgana sighed. “I shouldn’t have expected a moron like you to get it.”

“This isn’t normal for us,” Max retorted, stepping in front of Ryuji. “You can’t seriously expect us to understand what the fuck is happening inside someone’s heart...subconscious…cognition… whatever the hell you want to call it!” 

Morgana regarded her suspiciously. “But...you just described it.”

Max threw up her hands. “I just repeated what you said back to you! That doesn’t mean I get what’s going on!” 

Morgana was about to argue, but a shrill scream pierced the air with all the power of a sonic boom. 

“What was that?” Akira demanded. 

Morgana looked boredly at his paw. “Probably the slaves held captive here.”

Ryuji’s eyes widened as he took a step backwards. “For real?!” 

“Slaves?” Max asked. “But...if we’re in a world where everything’s made up, then--”

“It’s for real,” Ryuji breathed out. Max stopped talking and gave her friend a concerned look. She reached for his shoulder. 

“Ryuji?” 

He ignored her in favor of his own mumbling. “We saw other guys held captive here yesterday. I’m pretty sure they all go to Shujin.” 

“Wait, what?” Max demanded. “When was this? Are you absolutely sure?” Max’s questions went unanswered as Ryuji continued to talk aloud with Morgana adding in more info to make the situation more complicated. 

“It’s nothing out of the ordinary,” he informed. “It’s like that every day here.” He put his paw to his mouth in thought. “What’s more, is that you three escaped yesterday. That must have made him pretty mad.” 

“Son of a bitch,” Ryuji muttered. Max gave him another concerned look, having a feeling of what was about to happen next. 

“Ryuji, there’s--”

Ryuji proceeded to slam himself against the door. “THIS IS BULLSHIT, KAMOSHIDA,” he screamed.

Max pulled him away from the door. “Don’t hurt yourself, dumb-ass!” 

Ryuji pulled away from her grasp. “He’s got people as slaves, Max! You’re seriously okay with that?”

Max’s mouth dropped open in offense. “Of course not, but that doesn’t mean you should dislocate your shoulder trying to get to them!” 

“Jones-san is right,” Kurusu said. “We really shouldn’t get captured again if we can help it.” 

Ryuji sighed and gave Max an apologetic side glance. Her face softened, and she gave a small smile and shrug in response. “What do you want to do now, Ryuji? We found the castle, and we figured out that this place is really real. And that there’s slaves being held here. Maybe we can get the police over here?” 

“Tried that,” Kurusu answered glumly. “Told them when we got caught outside of school with you. They didn’t believe us.” 

Max scoffed. “Unbelievable. Why didn’t you guys let me--”

“Passed out,” Ryuji reminded her. Max closed her eyes in annoyance and tried to think. “MonaMona!” 

Morgana glared at him. “It’s Morgana!”

“Where are those voices coming from?” Ryuji asked, ignoring the complaint. 

“You want me to take you to them?” Morgana asked doubtfully. Max brightened. 

“Awesome. Let’s get going. Where’s that shaft we came out the last time?” 

“Wait, I didn’t--!” 

Max didn’t wait to hear his reply, and she was already jumping up to shimmy her body into their secret entrance. Morgana groaned and looked at Akira. 

“You better be coming with us. You’re the only one that can fight with a Persona.” Morgana turned back towards the shaft. “Don’t go anywhere without us, Max!” He rushed off and jumped up the wall with relative ease. Ryuji put an awkward hand on the back of his neck. 

“Thanks, man,” he said. “Now let’s go make sure Max doesn’t get captured again.”

Akira raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t we get captured too?” 

Ryuji scoffed. “Yeah, but we had to bail her out after bailing ourselves out. I don’t wanna do that again!” 

The two made their way back through the ventilation duct as Max rolled her eyes at Morgana’s lecture. “We were making our way back in anyways, and you were going to use this as an entrance! Don’t hate me because I got to it first,” she argued. 

“You have no idea what you’re doing,” Morgana whispered to her harshly. “I won’t have a lady die under my watch!”

“I think we have other things to worry about,” Akira interrupted. “Where do we head next?” 

“Follow me,” Morgana said, their tail puffing up proudly. 

Akira moved forward, so Max made a move to follow, only to have Ryuji get a hold of her shoulder. “Hey, uh...it’s cool that you’re willing to help, Max, but this might be dangerous for you,” he warned. 

Max crossed her arms and gave him a defiant glare. “If you’re about to tell me to leave, I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me.” She made a move to leave, but Ryuji grabbed her wrist one more time. “Ryuji, I swear to God--”

“I’m not stopping you,” he snapped. “Just be careful. That’s all I’m saying. And lemme know if you start feeling sick. That’s all I was gonna say.” Max winced as he muttered, “Yeesh” under his breath. Max breathed out a sigh from her nose and caught up to her friend, bumping his shoulder as they walked side by side. 

“Thanks,” she said. “Same goes for you too, you know? I may not have a,” Max made wavy motions with her arms and her hands while Ryuji stifled a snort, “spirit thingy, but I can make those knights regret messing with us.” 

Ryuji smirked. “By being an annoying pain in the ass?” 

Max smirked back twice as wide. “The absolute worst,” she promised, giggling like a five-year-old. 

“Hey you two,” Morgana hissed. “Stop messing around and keep up!” 

They four comrades, like phantoms passing through the night, managed to sneak through the main lobby, and into the hidden stairwell leading to the dungeon. After they discovered the slaves weren’t there, they paused in a place Morgana called a safe room to wait them out. Max put a hand to her head as the room wavered back and forth between two forms--one looking like the damp and dingey stone dungeon she had gotten used to, and the other a classroom with the desks all lined up in a row. 

“Max? You good?” Ryuji put a hand on her shoulder. 

“Does every room in this place correspond to a room that’s in the school?” she asked. “And can’t you see the room?” 

“Um...yes,” Kurusu answered. “It looks like a dungeon room, for the most part.” 

“It goes all shifty to a classroom though,” Ryuji answered. “Why? You seeing something different?” 

“No. Just...the room’s echoing?” 

“Echoes?” Morgana asked. “You sure that the effects from your last visit aren’t still affecting you?” 

Max shook her head. “I’m fine. It feels like when we used the app to get here, but less pulse-y every time the room looks like a classroom,” she explained. Everyone gave her a confused and concerned look. “Look, I can’t describe stuff all that well sometimes, okay? It’s echoing! I promise I’m not crazy!” 

“Are you feeling okay still?” Kurusu asked. Max huffed. 

“I’m fine! I’d tell you if I wasn’t. Are the guards gone yet?” She crossed the strange room and put her ear to the door. “I don’t hear them. I think we’re in the clear.” She opened the door, and Morgana hissed at her. 

“What did I just say to you about letting me make the first move from now on?” 

Max opened the door wider and waved her arm out the door. “Lead the way then. They’re gone for now.” 

The fight seemed to drain out of Morgana, and he just shook his head. “Alright, then. Let’s try going this way. It seems like if the slaves were transferred, they would go this way where there’s more room. I think the guards called it the training hall when I overheard them talking.”

It wasn’t even thirty seconds before-- “Shadow!” Morgana yanked Max’s ankle to get her to hide around the corner. She hid without any problems, but she snorted when the guard didn’t do anything except stand there, shuffle two steps to the right, and then shuffle back to where he was standing. Then he repeated the action. 

“Does he think he’s actually accomplishing anything like that? He’d be better off just standing in one place,” Max whispered. 

Morgana shushed her with a glare, and she raised her hand in mock surrender. “An ambush would probably be our best approach to getting him out of the way. That way, no other soldiers come wanting a piece of the action, and we get to make the first move.” Morgana turned to Akira. “When he turns to the right, rush him and tear off his face.” 

“Whoa, what?” Ryuji yelped. 

The guard looked around, confused and Max’s grip on Ryuji’s wrist tightened as Morgana hissed at the blonde to keep quiet. 

“That seems a little extreme. Can’t we just hit him instead?” Max asked. 

“Tearing the face is how we separate cognition from their true form,” Morgana explained. “We can’t fight a cognition unless we have sight of their true form.” 

Max grumbled, rolling her eyes. “Ah, right. Silly me. Everyone obviously knows that. My bad.” 

Morgana sighed irritably. “Well, now you know, so if we could just--”

"HEY!” 

Max sucked in a breath as her back hit the cobblestones, and the glow of the Personas illuminated the grey corridor, but Max looked up just in time to see Kurusu get punched across the face. 

“They’ve got this, Max. Let’s just stay back for now,” Ryuji muttered to her. “Stay down.” 

“Look, if someone could give me one of those magic thingies right about now, that would be great,” she grumbled back to him. “Be more helpful that way.” 

“ARGH!” Morgana skidded back to their positions, their Persona gone. “I’m too weak,” he muttered spitefully. “I can only support from here.” 

Ryuji cursed under his breath and began searching his pockets for some medicine. “What, and leave Kurusu-san by himself?”Max demanded. “Come on, you’re still alive, and you’re more powerful than Ryuji or me! So what if you don’t have your damn Persona?” 

Morgana flinched back. “Personas are the strength of your heart. When they disappear, your heart temporarily weakens. That’s why you couldn’t get away from them last time, no matter how hard you tried. Your heart is weakened by the Palace. It’s just how it works,” he explained with a wavering voice, as if he were in pain. “I’m sorry, but your friend’s strong! He can handle--”

“Gragh-ack!” 

Morgana sighed in defeat. “Never mind.” 

“Shit, there’s gotta be something we can do!” Ryuji yelled. Max didn’t answer and instead ran in front of the guard as he held a sword underneath Kurusu’s throat. 

“Are you sure that’s the way you want this to go?” Max asked the guard evenly. 

“What is she doing?” Morgana hissed. 

“Shut up and take the medicine, cat, so she can run!” 

_ “What the hell am I doing?”  _ she thought to herself. 

“Step no further,” the guard commanded. “I will slit his throat for the glory of King Kamoshida!” 

Max, despite her breath quickening and rushing out of her lungs in her panic, stayed in her place and slowly held her hands up in an “I surrender” gesture. “Will slitting his throat really bring glory to King Kamoshida?” she asked. It took all of her power not to gag on her own words. 

“Of course! He is the enemy! You are the enemy,” the shadow cried. Max nodded slowly. 

“I get that. We just barge in here, uninvited, downing all of your comrades, and then we try to bring down your king’s morale. But aren’t we exactly what your king needs?” she asked. The guard lowered his sword slightly, just enough so that Kurusu’s Adam's Apple could move without being cut. 

“Explain yourself,” the guard snapped. 

“Well, a king can’t truly be king unless he’s worthy of it, right?” Max asked. “How can he prove his worthiness if there’s no one to challenge it? And by getting rid of idiots like us…”

“Max, what the hell?” Ryuji yelled from behind her. She winced, but she did not stop her argument. 

“Your King will once again prove how worthy he is of glory. If you kill us now, you won’t be proving his glory. Rather, he’ll be angry at you, because you aren’t putting your confidence in him as your king, because you didn’t let him pursue or kill us. This isn’t for King Kamoshida’s glory then, is it?” 

The man’s sword lowered even more as her argument continued. She locked eyes with Kurusu as she gauged how far away the sword was. He still didn’t have enough wiggle room to duck under and get away. The guard just needed a little more of a push…

“Killing us now would only be for your glory, but you seem like the most loyal subject I’ve ever seen,” Max emphasized. “So ready to fight for your king, that you’ve just been standing here for hours!” 

The sword fell away from Kurusu’s throat, and he fell to one knee, coughing and spluttering. 

“What do you suggest, traitor? That I simply let you go?” the guard demanded. “That is not what I was commanded!”

“Kings always admire those who can take initiative,” Max said. “I say we compromise. You give us, say, a forty minute head-start. You tell the rest of the guards that we’re here after that. Then King Kamoshida can have the pleasure of killing us to save his kingdom from anarchy,” she continued. “That way, your king gets all of the glory he rightfully deserves!” 

Morgana scoffed “There’s no way that’s going to work! That deal is so in our fa-”

“I accept your terms. I will stay here at my post, and if you cross my path again, then I deem you unworthy of facing my king and will end you and your associates,” the guard agreed. 

Max nodded. “Understood. May the best person win.” She reached down and offered a hand to Kurusu, who took it with a gobsmacked expression. She turned to Ryuji and Morgana. “Let’s go. We have to make the most out of our forty minutes.” 

As they turned down the corridor and got into a secluded corner, Max let out a whispery scream because  _ Holy shit, that had actually fucking worked!  _

“What the hell was that?” Ryuji asked, grinning ear to ear. “That was, like, max-level arguing!” Ryuji snickered to himself. “Max-level.” 

“Thanks for the save,” Kurusu said, coughing. “Arsene couldn’t get past the level of distortion coming from the guard.” 

“What the hell was that?” Morgana demanded. “You don’t have a Persona backing you up! Negotiations only go that smoothly if you have a Persona guiding your next actions, but you were able to change a cognition without the power of rebellion!”

“Why do you sound upset?” Max asked, crossing her arms. “We couldn’t attack since he had a fucking sword to his throat! That left talking it out!” 

Morgana just shook his head, staring at her in wonder. “I’m not mad. Just very confused, and very, very intrigued. Changing a person’s cognition is not easy. Those guards are formed based on what Kamoshida wants them to be. He wants them to be loyal and mindless, only doing what he says. You were able to essentially change his cognition without a Persona for a brief moment so that we could escape. That’s not normal,” he explained. 

“We’re in a castle inside an asshole teacher’s soul. That ain’t normal either,” Ryuji pointed out. He took one of the medicine tablets and gave it to Akira. “Take these, and you’ll be okay. They heal everything!” 

“So do we have to go past that guard again to get to the training hall? Or are we going the right direction?” Max asked. 

Morgana grinned. “Follow me!” 

Ryuji and Max stayed quiet when for the following enemies, as Morgana (shockingly) was correct about how ambushing them and tearing their face off was honestly the easiest and best way to proceed through this hell without getting caught or hurt. After Kurusu and Morgana gained more power from fighting against creatures, they ended up at the--

“Gag me with a fucking knife,” Max groaned. 


End file.
